


Falling Slowly

by all4athena



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-28 20:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/678793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all4athena/pseuds/all4athena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The post-Reichenbach nightmares continue to haunt John, but lucky for him, Sherlock's there to provide solace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Slowly

_You have suffered enough_  
 _And warred with yourself_  
 _It’s time that you’ve won  
_ ————————————-

The nightmares. Again. As always.

There he was, on top of St. Barts at one moment; the next moment, dead on the pavement. The doctor was still, as he ever was, helpless.

John woke himself up by screaming his name.

It’s been two months, he thought to himself as she shot straight up in bed, a light sheen of ice-cold sweat covering his body.He’s in the other room, for Christ’s sake!

The door to the doctor’s bedroom creaked open slowly, letting a dim yellow light from the hallway shoot a ray of light across the carpeted floor.

“John.”

That’s all he said. The detective, the cause of all of John’s torment, gently let himself into the room, closing the door behind him. His ghostlike appearance, reminding the doctor of something he read in a Dickens story once, set John aback as the detective crossed the room and knelt beside the bed.

“Again?” the detective asked, offering an upturned hand to the doctor.

John nodded slowly, his normally tan skin matching Sherlock’s alabaster colour. He reached forward and took the detective’s hand, weaving his fingers in the other man’s.

“I heard you screaming my name.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” John said, ducking his face out of the detective’s line of sight.

“John.”

“No.”

Sherlock sighed and rose to his feet, still clinging to John’s hand, as if it were the one thing that kept him from falling in John’s dreams. He sat at the edge of the bed, nudging John to grant him access to more of it; the doctor complied.

“John.”

“I’m broken, Sherlock.”

“I intend to make you whole again,” he began as he collected the doctor in his arms, bringing him into a tender, secure embrace. “You’ve suffered and warred with yourself long enough, John. It’s time that you’ve won.”

The older man broke in Sherlock’s embrace. He began to weep silently, breathing through his nose while tears began to roll down his cheeks and stain the detective’s nightshirt. He pressed his cheek against Sherlock’s sternum as he was pulled closer into the detective’s form. “Hold me for a bit?”

“I fully intend to, John. I fully intend to,” Sherlock said, nuzzling his cheek into John’s short blonde hair.

John cried.

Sherlock waited.

John cried.

Sherlock held.

John cried.

Sherlock cried with him.

John was the first to break their silence. “Do you think these… these hauntings…. will ever end?”

Sherlock sighed, placing small, chaste kisses down the doctor’s cheek as he did so. “I can’t promise that,” he began, his tone turning from caring to serious. “I’d imagine they would dissipate with time, but would always occasionally be brought into your subconscious as you slept.”

“I would’ve been chuffed if you lied to me just now,” John admitted.

“I love you too much to do so,” Sherlock started before realizing he had lived a lie for the better part of the past three years. “…Again,” he amended.

John’s face tilted up to meet Sherlock’s gaze. “Tell me that again. Ineedto hear it again.”

“I promised I’d make you whole again, didn’t I?” Sherlock asked before placing a tender kiss on the doctor’s lips.

“You did,” John said, moving to lay back down and pulling the detective with him. “Can you stay the night?”

“I wasn’t going to leave you, even if you asked,” Sherlock admitted as he settled down beside John, pulling him closer and letting the other man’s head rest on his bare chest. “Try to go back to sleep. Don’t worry, I’ve got you - and I’m not letting go.”

John nodded slowly before drifting off to a peaceful slumber, coaxed on by the steady drumming of Sherlock’s heart.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night.


End file.
